An Analysis Of Karl Jay Shapiro's Poem 'El'

There were over about 70 million people that served in World War II, and about 60 million died while serving their term Australia: 23,365 dead; 39,803 wounded Austria: 380,000 dead; 350,117 wounded, Belgium: 7,760 dead; 14,500 wounded, Bulgaria: 10,000 dead; 21,878 wounded, Canada: 37,476 dead; 53,174 wounded,China: 2,200,000 dead; 1,762,000 wounded,France: 210,671 dead; 390,000 wounded,Germany: 3,500,000 dead; 7,250,000 wounded,Great Britain: 329,208 dead; 348,403 wounded,Hungary: 140,000 dead; 89,313 wounded,Italy: 77,494 dead; 120,000 wounded, Japan: 1,219,000 dead; 295,247 wounded (World 13). Even with all of these deaths around him one man helped capture what was going on during the war, along with the intensity of the soldiers war experiences and a sense of being left out from there own personal life. This man goes by the name of Karl Jay Shapiro not only was he a World War II veteran but also an editor, a teacher, a standard bearer, and even a mentor (Karl 7).
Karl Shapiro was born as an American on November 10th, 1913 in Baltimore, …show more content…
Another reason “Elegy for a Dead Soldier” was a popular poem was Shapiro’s use of personification of certain abstracts, In his poem when he talks about loss it “points at nothing,” and doubt seems to “Flirt” (Elegy